Results of the 2009 Syracuse Memorial Day Half Marathon - 1:45:59

So a new milestone has been reached. My first official Half Marathon race. I could hardly sleep last night I was excited for it. I wasn't nervous just anxious to start. Last night Jacob said he wanted to do it so we woke him and took him with us to register for it last minute.

When we got there we saw Dan and Liz Yardley from our Fruit Heights ward. It was nice to see them again.

At 6:45 they started the half marathon runners. I started my stop watch as soon as I crossed the starting line (only about 25 feet from the front of the pack).

Here's the map of the course:


I stayed right behind Tiffany Gallup and Cathi for the first 2 miles and afterwards either they slowed up a bit, or I felt more energy so I went ahead for just a bit. About 4 miles into it Cathi comes up and passes me and increases my pace. We stayed together from 4 - 8. My MP3 player quit working after 3 miles and the new battery wouldn't work either so I only got 2 songs before I was without it. I then used my breathing to help pace myself. I wasn't too disappointed not having tunes.

When I turned around at the top of the trail and started heading back I was still feeling good. When I got down to mile 10 I was a little worried. I was feeling pain in my ankles and a little in my right knee. I put up a mental block of the pain and kept the pace. The last mile was tough. I picked up the pace and started to get stabbing sharp pain in my right knee, but I again put up a mental block and within a couple minutes I brought it back down as the pain was gone. I sprinted the last stretch heading north on the path. I had a very strong finish.


I stopped my watch at the finish to get my actual time: 1:45:59. I wanted to get under 2:00 and I definitely did that. My overall pace was 8:01/mile which is way faster than what I did at the Stansbury Triathlon last Saturday. So I feel great that I didn't absolutely kill myself and leave nothing for this race. I had a great race and very happy with that time.

Cathi was a few minutes behind me and she ended with 1:49:37. She took first place for her age group (30- 39) and got a medal. Jacob got 2:17:01 and took first place for his age group (10 and Under). He was getting high fives and lots of encouragement for many runners. Only a couple kids his age were entered and he ran nearly the whole thing. He was so tough. Tiffany did good. She seemed a little disappointed with her time though. Liz Yardley ran it too. It was nice to see her and Dan and their kids. It was her first half too.

Overall a very good race. Next up: SDRC Sprint Triathlon this Saturday